Terminal Art: A Retrospective

1985-1995

In 1986, the Terminal Art exhibit presented a computer graphics art show, the work of several Genigraphics artists based in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Genigraphics system, running on a DEC PDP-11 and outputting to 35mm color slides, was the state of the art in 1986. NASA and other high-tech corporations used the Genigraphics system, which cost about $300,000. The slides output at 2000 lines of resolution with a pallette of 6 million colors and sold for $80 each. The vector-based images were recorded on 8-inch floppy disks. Artists used a pen-like pointing device to select objects and a "hockey puck" to digitize objects on a graphics tablet.

Digital Image, in Nashville, Tennessee, installed the first Genigraphics system in that part of the country in 1982. The company, which used the system to produce boardroom presentations for Fortune 1000 companies, generously permitted its Computer Graphic Artists to use the system during off hours to produce art slides. I curated Terminal Art, the first show of this new art medium and the precursor of today's digital art.

At that time, nine years ago, personal computers were expensive little toys used for spreadsheets and desktop publishing.

This year, 1995, my Micron Pentium graphics system cost about 1% of the price of a Genigraphics computer. It works with a pallette of 16.7 million colors and outputs at resolutions up to 8000 lines or 2400 dpi. Raster-based images are stored on 3.5-inch diskettes or 135-megabyte removable hard disks.

Terminal Art: A Retrospective presents the original images from the 1986 installation. Each image has been scanned into my current system and received a new treatment using the current technology. You may visit the galleries listed below. Click on any image to see the 1995 version.